Product description

For a portable telescope that excels at wide-field stargazing, look no further than the Orion Go Scope 80mm Tabletop Refractor Telescope. This ultra-compact, entry-level refractor with a tabletop mount makes a great, high-quality first telescope for beginning stargazers. But it's not just for newbie's - the Go Scope 80mm Tabletop Refractor's convenient small size makes it a true grab-and-go telescope, perfect for the mobile interests of more experienced hobbyists. The entire telescope weighs just 5.65 lbs. assembled (including eyepiece and reflex sight) so it's easy for anyone on the family to take it out to the backyard table or favorite observing site. With an 80mm objective lens and 350mm focal length (f/4.3), the Go Scope 80 refractor performs rather impressively for its modest size, collecting over 30% more light than its 70mm counterpart, and over 70% more light than a 60mm refractor. Not only will views appear brighter in the Go Scope 80 Tabletop Refractor Telescope, but you'll be able to see more objects in the night sky with this telescope compared to smaller diameter models. The included 20mm and 10mm 1.25 inch telescope eyepieces will aid in your exploration of the solar system as you observe the Moon's craters and seas, the rings of Saturn, and the moons of Jupiter. The 20mm telescope eyepiece provides modest 17.5x power magnification, which is excellent for observing vast open star clusters and bright deep-sky objects. You can use the included 10mm telescope eyepiece to boost the Go Scope 80's magnification up to 35x for more powerful views of the Moon's cratered surface and more. As you scan the Milky Way, you'll also be delighted by gorgeous views of globular star clusters, as well as a nebula or two.

No customer reviews

Review this product

Most helpful customer reviews on Amazon.com

Amazon.com:
3.7 out of 5 stars
56 reviews

Edward F.

5.0 out of 5 starsSmall and amazind

February 20, 2011 - Published on Amazon.com

Verified Purchase

I bought an orion 80 mm refractor telescope and couldn't be happier.As a guy who read reviews to really know what is helpful about this telescope i learned what youwant to know by buying it.I can state the following (Straight to the point):

1) You can get amazing views of the moon, maria, craters and even the mountains of Theophilus. (With or without a 2x barlow)2) You can see Saturn, it's rings, cassini division, faint moons and even the planet's shadow. (With a 2x barlow)3) Jupiter, Io, Callisto, Europa and Ganymede. (Clearer view of the bands with a 2x barlow)4) Andromeda Galaxy5) Orion nebula6) Honestly alot more... countless messier objects.

The telescope is highly portable, i recommend buying the mini equatorial mount from orion (EQ1) also.Images are clear and crisp.

You can upgrade this small telescope to get larger images by using a 2x barlow or 3x barlow.

Just as a reference, saturn's rings are visible at x70 more or less magification and the highest useful capabilityis 160x...I tried stacking 2 barlow lenses together to push this telescope to the limits. Combining a 2x barlow with a 3x gave me 5x power. I thought this was to much for this small telescope but i got big detailed images of saturn and jupiter.

I ordered the GoScope used, for less than $100 and it would have been a good deal, except that what came today was not a used GoScope but an equilateral tripod. Well, no real harm done, there is a UPS store just a few miles away.

I'll go ahead and order another GoScope, this time a new one at full price and check it out when it arrives. I'll let you all know how it works in my light polluted suburban Dallas neighborhood. I dont expect the views I get from my StarBlast 6, but it should be a good scope for learning how to star hop. It should have a wide field of view with a 32mm eyepiece, and show only the most prominent stars.

10/9/2018

OK, the problem has been fixed. I did receive the wrong item, but within 24 hours, Amazon has shipped me the correct one. I now have the GoScope, assembled, and ready to examine. You can't really fault a company for human error, but you can commend them for acting swiftly to fix the error. The delivery guy walked to my front door, rang the doorbell and greeted me when he delivered my new GoScope. Way to go, Amazon.

The telescope has the look and feel of a quality product. It assembled quickly, and the bearings and movements seem to allow for a fine adjustment of altitude and direction... essential things when you are following a target in the sky. We've been having over a month of constant rain here in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, so I can't comment on how it renders astronomical objects, but I can say a few words about the unit.

. the packaging is very impressive. It came double boxed, with a rough outer box and a more elegant cardboard structure inside it. Better yet, the flaps in the inner box can be folded together to create a carrying handle to transport the scope. The scope inside the box is very easy to carry around, to places such as a campsite, or a large lot away from city lights.

The dobsonian frame accepts vixen style mounts. The vixen on the optical tube has three dimples to accept the mounting screw, so you won't unnecessarily scar the vixen with scratches. Very impressive design.

The dobsonian-type mount is pretty sturdy. I attached my 5 pound Apex 102 to the mount, and the whole assembly held pretty well. I didn't notice too much shake, although the stability of the mount and the GoScope was definitely better. This makes it pretty feasible to use the low power wide field GoScope to locate a target, and the high-power Apex to zero in on it.

The telescope cannot point to the zenith. With the tube extended up as far as I could put it, the best angle I could get was about 70 degrees. Any higher than that and I'd have to remove the tube from the mount and attach it to a tripod or a seperate mount that allowed for completely vertical orientation.

I already own several other telescopes, and I bought this one because of its 350 mm focal length. With the eyepieces included, it should give me a 3 degree true field of view with the 20mm eyepiece, and a 1.5 true field of view with the 10mm. I expect to use this instrument to learn how to sky hop effectively. If my sky chart says a target is 3 degrees to the right, for example, I can estimate the distance to move the scope pretty accurately. Also, its lower aperture should put fewer stars in the view, so as not to confuse me with too much detail.

OK, I'm upgrading my star review to 3 stars for the fit and finish, things I can opine on without looking at the sky. I'll do some actual asronomy when the clouds go away, and maybe upgrade the review to a 4 or 5. Thanks for reading.

10/11/2018

Ok, im adding one star, now that I have a couple of nights stargazing. This is a capable small telescope, a quality product that can provide a lot of valie for its size and price.

I have the scope and the dobsonian mount on a tripod and this gives a pretty good viewing posture, simce the tripod legs are adjustable in height. I can adjust the altitude tension to hold the scope in place but still provide some fine control without too much backlash or skopping. So far so good.

The first night, I concentrated on seeing the star patterns around the dominant star in a constellation, in this case Vega in the constellation Lyra. There were plenty of stars to look at, and give me some sense of the constellation itself, and when I looked at the wide field-of-view, I noticed that the star Vega, and the double double binary star system and Delta Lyra were all visible in the same field of view. Actually getting a good star pattern of a constellation in a wide field of you was my primary purpose for buying this telescope. I want to be able to learn how to work through a constellation, and star hop around it. So this telescope is great for looking at Lyra. I did try to look at the Ring Nebula in Lyra, and as I suspected I couldn't see it, not enough aperture.

The next night, I decided to look for some deep Sky objects, specifically open clusters. I started out with the double cluster in the constellation Perseus, and it showed up very well. Both clusters were in the same field of view, for the 20 mm eyepiece and also the 10 mm eyepiece. And the number of stars made it to pretty impressive. So far so good. Next, I looked at the Pilates, that was a pretty good show, and then the hyades. Finally I put in my telescope at Mars, and the 10 mm eyepiece really was the best view. Mars was of course just an orange dot, but I didn't see too much of a comma there and it was pretty close to being a round and well for him too.. Going to the 20 millimeter eyepiece though, there was considerable distortion on the image I'll have to say. But I really just use the 20 millimeter eyepiece to find the planet in the first place.

I will be using the scope in the future, just because it's so handy to carry around, even mounted on my tripod it's going to be pretty easy to pick it up and take it to a dark site. I'll be doing a lot more learning of the particular patterns around the central star of the constellation, but also I'm going to look at a lot of open clusters as well, and maybe I'll see how it works with some globular clusters. I don't think it's going to be too helpful on the dimmer dark sky objects are deep Sky objects, but for a lot of the things I like to look at, like double stars and open clusters it'll be just fine. So I think four stars is probably a fair description of the product. As far as being a good value for the price, for that alone I'd say five stars for that specific category.

Some things I discovered about the telescope and make it easier to work with it I'll make a note of. You want to use a really heavy tripod for this thing, a camera tripod is going to be two Wiggly and wobble a lot, so you need to get the heaviest thing you can find. That will make a really solid observation view. Also, when the telescope is looking at an object close to the Horizon, it's really easy to move the eyepiece so that it is at an angle to your to your head instead of straight up. The problem with that, is that when you move the field of view, moving it horizontally or vertically can be very misleading when you look through the eyepiece and move it. Instead of the view going straight up and down or left and right it's going to go in an angle, just because the eyepiece is now at an angle to the vertical. So that takes a little getting used to. Also, the dobsonian Mount will not let you point the telescope completely at the zenith. You can minimize this problem by resetting the scope in the dovetail mount as high as you can get it, and work with the tension knob on the amount to make that more or less stable. But it's still not going to reach the Zenith. If you really do have to look at something directly overhead, you probably want to take the scope off of the mounts and put it on something else. In my case I have a versa go to mount that accepts a vixen dovetail and that can actually get me all the way to the zenith, but that normally should not be too much of a handicap. There are a vast number of things to look at without having to look straight up.

All in all, this scope is a good addition to my collection of telescopes, and will serve a discrete purpose, a wide field of view, that the others don't have. So I'm happy I got it.

This is a fantastic easy scope to use. I have had less than two hours and I am already taking pictures if the sun just using my cell phone no adapter. I have a sun filter plus a 8mm to 24mm celestron zoom eye piece. I have owned a Meade ETX 125mm in the past and wanted a scope I could just use quickly. This is great as I set in a small adjustable laptop stand sit down and look into the sky.

I have bought a number of Orion telescopes for my astronomy class and have always been impressed by their quality.What I like: The price, excellent optics, smooth Dobsonian mount, easily attached to a camera tripod, red-dot finder works perfectly, and best of all, the integral focusing adjustment is perfect.What I don't like: Nothing ...Using an Orion 7.2mm to 21.5 Zoom eyepiece, I was able to easily see all 4 moons of Jupiter (not surprising) and actually resolve several belts on Jupiter (very surprising). Highly recommended.